1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for alerting a driver and others to ensure a school or day care bus or van is thoroughly examined for remaining occupants following a transportation run. The warning system provides the driver with a verbal instruction to examine the vehicle for remaining occupants upon the turning off of the vehicle ignition system. Subsequent to the initiation of the verbal instruction, after a predetermined time, if the system has not been instructed that the check has been made, a separate alarm (e.g., a siren) will sound to prompt the inspection for remaining occupants.
2. General Background of the Invention
Upon completion of transportation runs as at the unloading of pupils carried to a school or day care facility, or after their return to the original pick-up-point, the transportation vehicle is parked in a garage or parking lot. Typically, the vehicle is stored in such a location for periods of several hours upwards to overnight or a week-end. Typically, transportation companies have policies which require drivers to examine the vehicle upon completion of a run however, there are sufficient incidents of a breach of the policy or an incomplete check that such as children or mentally challenged individuals are left aboard. The results of the oversight may be devastating in the instances involving infant children or severely handicapped individuals. Injury ranging from dehydration, and heat prostration to death from overheating, or conversely overexposure, has been reported.
Unfortunately children may fall asleep during the ride or not awaken when the vehicle reaches their destination, or even the end of the run. Similarly, an infant or a severely handicapped individual may fall asleep, or may not even be able or cognizant to provide some indication of their presence aboard at the end of the run. Accordingly, without a sufficient check, these passengers are in danger of being forced to remain aboard for significant periods of time. Further complicating the matter is the likelihood that the vehicle is parked in a remote location where the crying or screams of child or infant may not be sufficiently loud to be heard at any distance from the vehicle.
Actual injury and loss of life have been experienced often enough to cause public outrage and action by local and state governments for programs of training and development of back-up equipment or systems to ensure some level of compliance with an examination for remaining occupants. Patents have issued on at least two alarm systems which are intended to address the existing problem. While these prior art devices are certainly made to provide some level of warning if a regimen is not followed, they are viewed as not completely addressing the needs of an operational system which will address all operating conditional.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,651 describes an alarm system for a school bus which includes a rear mounted deactivation switch to defeat an alarm sounding that has been triggered by the turning off of the vehicle ignition switch. The described system is armed by the action of a door switch on the first opening of door or operation of the safety warning system including the red warning lights. The illustrated alarm system would not be activated if the bus was loaded prior to the starting of the engine (operation of the ignition switch). U.S. Pat. No. 5,243,323 describes another system for the reminding of a driver to check that all passengers have exited the vehicle before the vehicle is parked or secured. In this system, an alarm (buzzer) sounds when the ignition is turned off, as at the end of a transportation run, which is silenced by the driver going to the rear of the bus and operation of a cut-off switch to silence the buzzer. The driver is expected to view the bus seats on the walk to the rear of the bus to determine that there are no passengers remaining aboard prior to activation of the cut-off switch. The system includes a second alarm system utilizing such as the vehicle horn and/or lights activated by a timer should the driver not activate the cut-off switch prior to a predetermined time. The disclosed system also includes a service switch which totally disables the safety system should the vehicle be taken to a service facility. The rationale is provided that the maintenance personnel would be disrupted in their work should the alarms be set off during the maintenance/service procedures. The described system optionally includes a buzzer warning system to signal on operation of the vehicle with the alarm system deactivated.
Experience with systems of the type described above has proven to be less than effective for avoiding the problem of children being left in a vehicle after a school or day care bus or van run. Firstly, such warning systems as buzzers which are activated at the turning off of the vehicle ignition switch are not effective in causing the driver to search the vehicle for remaining occupants. It serves primarily as a stimulant to the driver to go the rear of the vehicle and turn off the warning system. Unfortunately, in that trip to the rear of the vehicle, the driver's mind is focused on the turning off of the buzzer and not the primary goal of searching the bus. The present invention incorporates a voice reminder system in place of the buzzer, and the voice message continually reminds the driver of the primary objective of “Please, check all seats for occupants”, or some equivalent reminder. Surprisingly, this voice message, delivered in a pleasant tone, captures the driver's attention to perform the task at hand, i.e., search the vehicle and then turn off the message after the search has been completed. As with the other patented systems, the disable switch is located at the back of the vehicle such that it may be operated upon completion of the check. Guarding against the possibility that the check isn't done, or that the voice message malfunction, if the disable switch is not operated within a predetermined period of time, a siren is sounded. A siren or equivalent alarm system is selected over sounding the vehicle horn or flashing of the lights because the siren is a more recognizable signal of an event, the sound being transmitted to a far greater area than horn and lights.
A second aspect of the present invention is in the maintenance disable system for the warning system. Rather than a master disable switch which totally disables the system as is described in one of the above patents, the present invention incorporates a check regimen even when the system is disabled. The present inventive disable system for such as the performance of maintenance is operable by the service technician however, requires a similar voice prompted vehicle search and operation of the disable switch at the back of the vehicle prior to going into a standby condition. In view of the fact that children have actually been carried to a repair facility in a vehicle taken out of service, this feature is viewed as important to a totally responsive system. Thus, it should be understood that the present system requires a check of the vehicle whether on driver shut-down or on shut-down for maintenance.